PAUL CHERRY, CATHERINE SOLYOM of The Gazette contributed to this report
The Gazette
October 5, 2004
A 53-year-old man accused of using a butcher knife to kill his wife and trying to strangle one of their children in their Ahuntsic home is expected to appear in court today. That death became one of two homicides that occurred within hours in Montreal, as a woman stabbed in her apartment in Pierrefonds late Sunday died of her wounds last night.

In the Ahuntsic case, police were called to a two-storey building on Fleury St. E. early yesterday. Neighbours said the couple and their children had lived with other members of their extended family in three units in the building for nearly 20 years. Police found the victim, a woman in her 50s, lying unconscious and bleeding on the floor. She was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was declared dead. The woman suffered several wounds inflicted by the large knife, said Constable Steve Morissette, a Montreal police spokesperson.

The couple had three children age 15 to 19. Police learned during their investigation that a daughter had been choked but was not severely injured. Yesterday afternoon, the Montreal police major crimes squad found a Cantonese interpreter to help them question the suspect.
Another police spokesperson said the victim's husband is to be charged today with her death. He might also face a charge of attempted murder, the official said. Gilles Aubry described his neighbours in the building near Millen Ave. as "a model family."

"The children grew up here, went to the neighbourhood schools," he said.

"Often I would see children playing in front of the house."

The woman's death occurred within hours of another case of alleged spousal abuse. Kelly Ann Drummond, 24, succumbed last night to wounds suffered when she was attacked in a Pierrefonds apartment Sunday night. Martin Morin-Cousineau, 30, appeared in Quebec Court yesterday afternoon and was charged with attempting to murder Drummond. He would return to court today to face a charge of second-degree murder, Constable Miguel Alston, a police spokesperson, said yesterday. An ambulance was called to an apartment block on Pierrefonds Blvd., near Nanterre St., where they found Drummond in cardiac arrest. She had been stabbed in the back.

The two incidents occurred a week after Statistics Canada released a report indicating the spousal homicide rate in the country dropped by eight per cent in 2003. Last year in Canada, 64 men killed their wives and 14 women killed their husbands. Yesterday's deaths were the 33rd and 34th homicides reported in Montreal this year. There were 34 reported during the corresponding period last year.